20 MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 



ing year, and he spent the greater part of the summer 

 vacation at the School, engaged in scientific work, In the 

 early part of September he resigned his position to accept 

 a more responsible one in the sub-tropical laboratory estab- 

 lished at Eustis, Fla., by the United States Department of 

 Agriculture. Since the opening of the present college year 

 I have been assisted by Mr. Jared G. Smith, whose duties 

 are similar to those performed by Mr. Webber. Up to the 

 present fall the position has been that of assistant, and the 

 appointment was made by me, in consultation with the 

 Chancellor of the University ; but it has been changed this 

 year to an instructorship in Washington University, and the 

 appointment is made by the Board of Directors of the 

 University, though the duties and salary of the appointee 

 remain the same as heretofore. 



Though the endowment property of the School is regain- 

 ing some of its original value, lost through the depreciation 

 of the neighborhood in which it is situated, the income of 

 the School is still too small to allow any considerable addition 

 or extension to be made, and only the books and material 

 needed for immediate use have been purchased. Owing 

 to causes which have been stated in a previous report,* the 

 number of special students in the School of Botany 

 remains about the same as in previous years, but in addition 

 to the instruction of undergraduates in the University, and 

 garden pupils, special classes have been carried on as fol- 

 lows: In the spring of 1892, special phaenogamic botany, 

 structural botany, histology, and ferns. In the fall of 

 1892, special systematic botany, bryophytes, and thallo- 

 phytes. For the first time since the establishment of the 

 School, I have been able to secure several undergraduate 

 engineering students for a study of the histological and 

 other means of distinguishing timbers, and the adoption 

 of an elective system by the Faculty of the University 

 promises to give more opportunity for botanical instruc- 



* Report 1890, p. 100. 



